You gotta give props to the 'Big Bang Theory' hair and makeup team for the bang-up job they did making the guys into the cast of 'Star Trek: The Next Generation.' / Warner Bros.

by Roger Yu, USA TODAY

by Roger Yu, USA TODAY

Time Warner Cable and CBS have set Friday at 5 p.m. ET as the latest deadline in their contentious negotiations about a new contract.

TWC briefly dropped CBS early Tuesday after a midnight deadline for a new contract expired, but resumed the network's programming shortly after agreeing to more talks.

In a strange show of brinkmanship, their decision to pull back from a possible blackout in key U.S. markets was announced 30 minutes after they separately told reporters near midnight that they had walked away from the negotiations and allowed the network's signals to go dark.

If the blackout had been carried out as threatened, about 3 million TWC customers in eight markets - primarily in New York City, Dallas and Los Angeles - would have seen the No.1 network station disappear from their TV lineups.

TWC spokeswoman Maureen Huff said the signals were being removed when CBS asked to stop the process. "They were dark in some but not all areas," she said. "At the request of CBS, we have halted going dark on their channels."

Their retransmission contract - which dictates how much CBS gets paid by TWC for its broadcast signals - expired at the end of June. But the companies chose to keep CBS stations on the air while the talks continued. They set several deadlines in July, only to extend them repeatedly. On Monday, they extended the 5 p.m. deadline six times, once each hour after 7 p.m.

Their negotiation involves only the 13 CBS-owned TV stations in eight markets that are served by TWC. Showtime, TMC, Flix and Smithsonian - all fully or partly owned by CBS - are also included in the contract.

CBS-affiliate stations in other markets, even if they're in TWC service areas, are not affected by the negotiations.

Before deciding to continue to air CBS, TWC said in a statement, issued midnight Tuesday, that "the outrageous demands for fees by CBS Corporation have forced Time Warner Cable to remove several of its networks and broadcast stations from our customers' lineups."

CBS also confirmed Tuesday that it'll continue to negotiate with the nation's second-largest cable provider. But earlier Tuesday, CBS CEO Leslie Moonves struck a different tone, telling reporters that the network "was now at war with Time Warner Cable."

CBS contends that it offers some of the most popular programs - such as Big Bang Theory, 60 Minutes, NCIS and NFL games - and their fees should be higher in the new contract.

CBS receives about 88 cents per month per subscriber from pay-TV providers, estimates investment bank RBC Capital Markets. CBS generated about $250 million in retransmission revenue last year, and expects to top $1 billion by 2017.

In comparison, ESPN, the clear market leader in fees from pay-TV providers, receives about $5.50 per subscriber, according to RBC Capital. Other popular cable channels, such as TNT, USA Network and FX, demand about $1 per subscriber.

TWC has said that CBS wants to raise the fee as much as 600%. That figure is based on an average fee TWC pays for all CBS stations in its service areas, TWC says.

CBS accused TWC Tuesday of "engaging in a public campaign of disinformation and voodoo mathematics (featuring wildly inflated percentages) while doggedly restating their positions."

These are the CBS-owned stations that are part of the negotiation, including those airing CBS or CW network programming and independent stations. The CW is a joint venture between CBS and Warner Bros. Entertainment.

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